Chris Froome sprints to the line at the end of stage 19.
Photograph: Jose Jordan/AFP/Getty Images

After riding the time trial of his life en route from Xàbia to Calp in south-east Spain, Chris Froome goes into Saturday’s penultimate mountain stage in the Vuelta a España with an outside chance of becoming the first British rider to take the three-week Spanish Tour.

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The triple Tour de France winner started the 37.5km stage seemingly out of the picture at 3min 37sec behind the race leader, Nairo Quintana, but he regained more than 2min to leave himself just 1min 21sec behind the Colombian.

“This is the last race of my season so I’m really happy to be in good condition,” said Froome, who will miss next month’s world road race championships in Qatar. “For sure, you don’t enjoy a time trial but I get a lot of satisfaction when you hear you’re the fastest. That’s why you race. There’s one day of tough racing tomorrow.

“Quintana still has more than a minute but we’re going to keep fighting,” added the Team Sky leader, who has the possibility of joining Jacques Anquetil and Bernard Hinault, the only two cyclists to win the Tour and Vuelta in the same season. I’ll speak to my team-mates tonight and let’s see what happens. With Movistar Nairo has a strong team – it’s really going to be difficult to beat him.”

Froome’s sparkling time trial gave him reason to believe he might improve on his second places in 2011 and 2014 after he regained most of the 2min 37sec which he lost to Quintana during last Sunday’s brief, intense mountain stage to Formigal, where the Colombian and Alberto Contador caught him and Team Sky napping at the start of the 118km.

The time trial, run in hot, humid weather along Mediterranean coastal roads between the two tourist resorts, suited the Rio Olympic bronze medallist, including a lengthy drag uphill for some 6km in the first half and an undulating descent calling for constant changes of rhythm.

Froome had finished well ahead of Quintana in the time trial stages in this year’s Tour de France, and started by far the fastest, clawing back 46sec on the Colombian in the opening 12.5km. After 24km, the Kenyan-born Briton was 1min 32sec ahead of Quintana, who eventually finished 11th on the stage. Meanwhile Quintana’s compatriot Esteban Chaves lost his third place overall to Contador.

“I rode a good time trial but Froome rode a much better one,” said Quintana. “The question now is what we all have in our legs for the stage tomorrow, which will be a very important day. I lost a bit more time than I expected, because Froome was just flying. I wondered if I might lose over three minutes, but the margin should be enough to get me to Madrid.”

The race finishes on Sunday in the Spanish capital, but on Saturday the last mountain stage covers 193km, with four categorised climbs before hitting the Alto de Aitana ascent, the last of the 10 summit finishes that have made this race one of the toughest ever, prompting complaints from some riders that it is too tough.

The Aitana, in the mountain massif inland from Benidorm, is relatively long, at 22km, to a summit 1500m above sea-level, with its toughest sections coming in the final 5km.

Apart from at Formigal, Quintana has consistently had the better of the mountain exchanges with Froome over the last three weeks, albeit never by a decisive margin, and while he should have the edge, the momentum is suddenly with the Briton.